The Anaconda Plan and the Union's Civil War Strategy

At the starting of the Civil War, President Lincoln gathered his generals together and charged them with coming up with a plan to get the southern states back in the Union. The consummate commander of the Union Army, general Winfield Scott, devised a strategy that would come to be called the Anaconda Plan. general Scott was from Virginian and opinion that a large ration of Southerners wanted to be part of a united Union therefore he wanted to rebuild the union with a strategic course that called for as little blood shed as possible. general Scott's plan called for a unblemished blockade of the Southern states by the Union Navy.
 
The Anaconda Plan was named for the South American anaconda; a snake that kills it's prey by constriction and strangulation. Strangling the South to defeat by cutting of vital supplies from the surface was the basis for Scott's plan. The plan made sense but was ambitious to say the least. general Scott called for the blockading of the more than 3,500 miles of coast line from Virginia to Mexico and up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Depending on this strategy would need a great deal of patience and would only work over time and with the supplies on hand, the South could hold out for a good while.
 
President Lincoln knew that adopting such a plan could have world wide polite repercussions that could cause the Union problems. The Anaconda Plan would essentially be giving the Confederacy recognition as a legitimate country as surly no country would not blockade it's own ports. Lincoln had, so far, been victorious in avoiding this by calling the war nothing but the quelling of a rebellion. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, was involved that the Anaconda Plan might give foreign countries the opportunity to expand to the Confederacy full polite relations thus opportunity the South to foreign trade. This blockade could also cause problems with countries attempting to engage in business with The Confederate States of America.
 
The Union put the Anaconda Plan into activity and it was to be a major part of the North's strategy going forward. Secretary Welles was to assume the responsibility of the putting into place and maintaining the blockade as well as construction a fleet of ships indispensable to unblemished the ambitious plan. To do this he took the Union Navy from having only 82 ships in early 1861 to 264 ships by the end of the year. The Us Navy would have a fleet of over 600 Naval vessels by the end of the war.
 
The result the Anaconda Plan had on the outcome of the Civil War is a matter that has caused much discussion. The blockade enforced on the Confederacy by the Union Navy absolutely has to be a consideration in the South's loss. The James River, being the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, was equally prominent to the North and South and the Union's ability to hold Fort Monroe as a result of the blockade could absolutely be seen as a deciding factor in the war. 

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The Anaconda Plan and the Union's Civil War Strategy

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Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy Overview

In 1861, when war erupted between the States, President Lincoln made an impassioned plea for volunteers. Determined not to remain on the sidelines, Emma Edmonds cropped her hair, donned men’s clothing, and enlisted in the Union Army. Posing in turn as a slave, peddler, washerwoman, and fop, Emma became a cunning master of disguise, risking discovery and death at every turn behind Confederate lines.

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